The New York Times has been printing the news since 1851, when it was founded as the New-York Daily Times. Since then, the venerable publication has exhaustively covered national and international current events, along with investigative pieces, columns, features, reviews, an iconic crossword puzzle, and much more.
With its dense columns of tightly packed text, The New York Times clearly deserved its well-known nickname, “The Gray Lady.” In the 1960s, however, art director Louis Silverstein and his colleagues started adding design elements that made the newspaper easier to read, like additional white space, wider columns, larger text and photos, and a new typeface. The addition of infographics and less serious sections on sports, science, arts, and lifestyle helped to modernize the newspaper in the 1970s and 1980s.
Yet something was notably missing from the newspaper until the 1990s: color photographs. Even as nearly every other American daily newspaper added color to its pages, The New York Times resisted. For example, USA Today had been using color since its first issue in 1982. Finally, in 1993, The New York Times Book Review introduced color illustrations (the first was a huge green and orange snake with a book in its mouth), although this was still a far cry from having a color photo on Page 1 of the daily news section. Gradually, sections like Travel, Arts and Leisure, and Real Estate began adding color illustrations and photographs.
Concerns about quality were a major reason for the delay, with the newspaper’s management remaining skeptical about the reliability of color printing technology. The other significant barrier was a practical one, as the original New York Times printing press was too small to be retrofitted for color printing. However, this changed with the opening of two new printing facilities, one in Queens and one in Edison, New Jersey, which were equipped with color presses.
Besides the logistical issues, many feared that adding color would detract from the newspaper’s seriousness and make it appear more like a gossipy tabloid. When the front page of The New York Times finally made the leap into color on October 16, 1997, the newspaper’s creative and photography teams settled on two newsworthy images: one of shortstop Tony Fernandez (whose team, the Cleveland Indians, had just reached the World Series) and one of U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno at a hearing.
All the news (and photos) that are fit to print:
- Currently, The New York Times has the most online subscribers of any U.S. newspaper and the second-largest print circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal.
- Even well into the 21st century, some New York Times photos are still printed in black and white. The paper’s national circulation requires it to be printed on over two dozen presses around the country, some without the capacity to print full-color editions. Additionally, photo editors sometimes choose to run a black-and-white photo instead of a color one for editorial reasons.
- The New York Times is one of the only major U.S. newspapers to still use courtesy titles (e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., etc), though in recent years it has dropped these from certain sections and in certain situations.
